


Let Sleeping Demons Lie

by junko



Series: Senbonzakura's Song [25]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-09 23:22:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2001999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once again Renji says something he might regret....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Sleeping Demons Lie

When Byakuya breathed a sigh into their kiss, Renji knew it was time to pull away and say, “So, the sento?”

Byakuya’s shoulders slumped slightly under Renji’s arms. “One of us should go to the Division at some point.”

Renji laughed. “What? Work? Yeah, I suppose we’d better, eh?” 

Byakuya gave Renji a look that wasn’t at all hard to interpret—it was regretful, like he, too, would rather just turn around and spend the day in bed. He didn’t want to be captain now, only partner. But, that wasn’t reasonable, was it? The Division did a pretty good job running without them, but they’d asked them to do that a lot lately. It was time to step up a little. Untangling his arms from Byakuya’s shoulders, Renji stretched until his muscles popped. “Yeah,” he said, as if Byakuya had actually said something out loud. “It sucks. But, I’ll be back tonight. Besides, you have to let me take you on a date sometime in here.”

Byakuya’s eyes widened slightly. His mouth worked for a long time, until he finally asked, “Is this going to involve drinking at the Eleventh?” Before Renji could say anything, Byakuya stood up and said, “I should remind you that my demons are far harder control when I’ve had too much to drink.”

Ah hell, like Renji needed reminding of that little nugget of ugly. He flopped back against the pillows on the floor near the sunken fireplace. “Jeez, Byakuya, you think the only date I could think of involves getting shitfaced?”

Byakuya frowned down at Renji, his eyebrows questioning, as if wondering if this were a test. “Yes?”

“Well, it ain’t!” Renji said, blustering to hide the fact that, yeah, pretty much that’d been his plan. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and frowned. “I was going to take you out….erm, dancing!”

“Ah,” Byakuya said, a twinkle in his eye. “My apologies, then. I was unaware there were Human World-style dance clubs in the Seireitei.”

“Shows what you know, huh?” Renji grumped, feeling suddenly quite trapped by his quick lie.

“Indeed,” Byakuya smirked. “I look forward to it.”

Renji pulled himself to his feet and all but dashed from the room, “Yeah, well, you’ll have to wait now, won’t you? I have to work.”

#

 

“Me, and my big mouth,” Renji sighed to Shūhei Hisagi at lunchtime. They’d run into each other on the way back from mail call and decided to take a quick detour into an izakaya that advertised a two-for-one lunch special. Shūhei hadn’t really held up his end of the conversation after harassing Renji about the article that was due for the Seireitei Communiqué, so Renji kept up a running monologue just to fill the silences. Around a mouthful of agedashi tofu, Renji continued, “Where am I going to find a dance club in the middle of the damn Seireitei?”

“Why do you need this again?” Shūhei asked, as he slurped up some broth.

“Reasons.” Renji grimaced. Of all the times to suddenly tune in, Shūhei would have to pick now. Renji waved his chopsticks dismissively. “Reasons of dating.”

Shūhei almost spewed the beer he’d taken a sip of, “You’re dating someone? Since when? Who?”

Renji tugged his ear. “Look, um, it’s kind of a secret, okay?”

Shūhei sat back and muttered something about Eleventh Division guys and their damn secrets. Before Renji could ask what he meant by that, Shūhei sighed and said, “I can keep a secret.”

“I don’t know if you’re going to believe me if I tell you,” Renji said, sucking down more of the deep fried tofu. “I mean, it’s kind of unbelievable.”

Shūhei let out another sigh, his chopsticks twirling as they chased a bit of green onion down, “I can keep unbelievable secrets. Very unbelievable ones.” His dark gray eyes snapped up to pin Renji in a serious intensity, “Trust me.”

That look. Gah, it was a good thing Renji was very committed to being with Byakuya, because: hot damn. Renji shook himself out of that gaze with a rub of his nose and a little cough. “Yeah, okay, it’s like this,” putting an elbow on the table, Renji leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m dating… uh, my captain. I’m kind of seeing Byakuya.”

Sitting back, Shūhei’s face contorted with an array of emotions, most of them shock and disbelief. Finally, he shook his head, “How does that…? How do you…? No, there’s no way. You’re like polar opposites. Fire and ice.”

“Yep,” Renji said in acknowledgment. “And, you know, a lot of times it doesn’t. Really doesn’t.”

“I’ll bet.”

The waitress came by and refreshed their beers. She flirted outrageously with Shūhei, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was thinking really hard, pulling on his lower lip. His narrowed eyes focused hard on Renji again. After the waitress gave up and moved on to the next table, he said, “You’re trying to find a place in the Seireitei to take Captain Kuchiki dancing? There’s no place like that.”

“Yeah, genius-sempai, I figured that out all on my lonesome.”

“Well, then,” Shūhei said with a note of finality, “You’re going to have to make one.”

“Make one?” Renji repeated, considering the possibility seriously. But, he had no idea how to even start. Rent a room somewhere, maybe, but—

“I know a guy who has a DJ deck,” Shūhei said. “And a disco ball.”

“A what ball?” Also, was Shūhei helping?

“Disco.” Shūhei wiggled his fingers in the air. “It makes light and stuff. It could be a good effect, if you had the right decorations.”

“Decorations?” Renji snorted. “Now this is sounding more like a high school dance than a nightclub.”

Shūhei gave Renji a penetrating glance. “Do you think anyone in the Seireitei really knows the difference? Besides, it’s going to have to be kind of a private thing, isn’t it? I don’t really see your captain as the social sort.”

Renji grimaced. “Heh, yeah, no, not so much.”

“Right, so I’ll talk to Akon about the deck and maybe talk to Ms. Rangiku about the—“ Shūhei’s commanding certainty faltered, thinking of Matsumoto. Suddenly, he looked like a petrified schoolboy.

Renji chuckled and put an arm on Shūhei’s shoulder and gave it a man-to-man squeeze. “Look, I’ll make it so that you and your Ms. Rangiku can work on the decorations together, sempai. It’s the least I can do to repay you for your help.”

#

The afternoon practice went quickly, what with Renji’s mind working through the logistics of making a dance club. He’d already scouted out a couple of locations on the way back from lunch, taking note of spaces for lease. Getting the money together for rent was going to be a challenge, unless he could find a way to offer tickets in advance or something. But, that would involve lots of other people, and Renji really wasn’t sure Byakuya was ready for that kind of public declaration of togetherness.

But, it would be a sweet birthday present.

It wasn’t like Renji could afford much else. What else was he going to buy a guy like Byakuya? ‘Here, babe, I got you a honey stick.’ Seriously, scouring through the flea market bargains would be pathetic.

How romantic would it be to be able to say, ‘Hey, you know how I said I’d take you dancing? Surprise, I organized all this for you.”

Yeah, except Byakuya.

Would he even like a surprise like that? 

Maybe there was a way to have both. Like, go ahead and make the club, but instead of expecting Byakuya to mingle with all the sweaty masses, as it were, perhaps they could arrange to have a first, private dance together and then slip away. 

Huh, yeah, that could work.

It could even be perfect.

There was a soft rap on the top of his head. “Are you in there, Renji?” Renji blinked up into the face of Nanako, their Third Seat. Her brown face and mocking smile reminded him of Lady Yoruichi. “Your shift ended ten minutes ago.”

He sat on the steps looking out at the practice yard, ostensibly reviewing the sparring sessions, leaning on Zabimaru, like a crutch. Renji nodded, “Guess I was lost in thought.”

She sat down next to him, hugging her knees in tightly. “Hueco Mundo?”

He laughed at the seriousness in her voice, “Nah, just thinking about the captain’s birthday.”

“You getting him something… er, special?” Nanako blushed a little, but hid it with a tug on the braid hanging down the side of her face. 

“Maybe?” Renji said. “Thing is, he’ll either love it or hate it.”

She nodded absently, her attention turned to the practice yard and the sound of clashing zanpakutō. “You know him best.”

Renji leaned forward to regard her face for a while. When he’d left on assignment, Nanako had been uneasy with the fraternization charges that had been leveled. Ultimately, Miisho had been the one to sabotage his own case by showing off a dark, greedy side of himself hardly anyone could remain sympathetic to. But, what about the rest of the Division, what were they saying? Especially with Kinjo, who could be out there fanning the flames. “You think we should come clean?” he asked her quietly. “Me and the captain?” 

She glanced at Renji. “I would. It could lose us people, but, Renji, it’d be so much worse if it came out and the Division found out you two were keeping it a secret.”

Renji let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I think you’re right, but Byakuya’s going to resist making a statement to the whole Division. He sees it as a private matter; nobody’s business but ours. But, I wonder, you know, if I could just start telling people and letting them know it isn’t some kind of big, ugly secret, nothing we’re ashamed of.”

“What about fraternization rules? You can’t have it be one thing for the top brass and another for the lesser ranks.”

Renji nodded. “Been thinking about that. We could make a quiet change there, too, but Byakuya would have to sign off on that one. I bet I could get him to do it, because it wouldn’t have to be a substantial change. Just something to the effect of ‘so long as such relations don’t adversely affect the chain of command.’”

“But chain of command, Renji,” Nanako said, giving his shoulder a bump with her own. “That’s you two to a tea.”

“No, it ain’t,” Renji said giving her a toothy grin. “You’re an idiot if you think the captain wouldn’t send me to my death just because we’ve been intimate. That man is ruthlessness incarnate.”

“Erm,” she gave him a wobbly smile in return, “Is that sexy?”

“Totally.”

#

But, fraternization was more than chain of command, Renji thought, while pouring a bucket of lukewarm water over himself at the Eleventh Division’s sento. He’d grabbed his towel and made the trek once he was sure the change of the guard was complete. Late afternoon was too busy a time of day to try the Kuchiki hot springs. Anyway, he had a vague recollection it was closed to the public due to the huge influx of visiting noble families. 

Squeegeeing out his hair, Renji reminded himself that fraternization was more about favoritism than anything else. It wasn’t just whether or not a guy’d be spared from the front, but also if a lover would get other kinds of special considerations--like, say being confined to quarters for dereliction of duty instead of being drawn and quartered, like maybe he deserved. 

Renji winced. That was one they’d royally fucked up and was the kind of thing that cast doubt on Byakuya’s impartiality. 

Renji scrubbed soap over the rest of his body, considering. Surely there was a system for dealing with this out there, somewhere, like maybe one of the Human World governments. How hard could it be to do a little research and draft up a new policy proposal or two to float by Byakuya? Seriously, couldn’t they come up with an impartial judge or a cross-divisional tribunal? There must be something that would remove the problem of Byakuya having to pass judgment on him…. What the hell had they done over at the Thirteenth when the lieutenant had married their Third?

A ruckus on the other side of the changing room’s ratty blue curtain interrupted Renji’s thought process. It sounded like a bunch of shinigami noisily pooling money to cover everyone’s bath. Renji took the opportunity to stake out a section of the pool before they all crowded in. He had no plans to linger, but any group of Eleventh was bound to be rowdy, and a corner was a more defensible position—especially the one closest to the half wall that separated the men from the women.

Lowering himself in the pool, Renji waited. 

The conversation notably hushed when the group entered the changing room. They seemed to be discussing… Zabimaru? Already up and moving, he heard snatches of conversation over Zabimaru’s growling hisses.

“Look, you guys, it’s just sitting there. Problem solved.”  
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure that’s no asauchi. Look at the guard.”  
“So what? If you just take it, doesn’t he have to fight you for it?”  
“I don’t know, dudes, this doesn’t seem like such a good idea.”  
“You got to get a zanpakutō somewhere, don’t you?”  
“Lots of people steal theirs. Even the captain did.”

Renji shoved aside the curtain so hard it tore. “You fucking lay a finger on my Zabimaru that’ll be the last….” He might have finished with something like ‘use you’ll ever have of that hand’ but the rest of the threat dried up in Renji’s throat when he saw the familiar ratty bandana and blond dreads stuck up in a topknot so very much like his own. It was Seichi. He was surrounded by a group of Eleventh Division thugs. Unseated by the looks of them, though Renji thought he recognized at least one other face besides Seichi’s. 

They scattered at the sight of him, like rabbits, leaving Zabimaru clattering to the floor.

As Renji stooped to soothe Zabimaru, he tried to piece together if what he’d seen was accurate… because he’d’ve sworn Seichi was wearing a shihakushō, a shinigami uniform.

Had that moron actually found a way to sign on at the Eleventh? Had those idiots actually taken him?

And what the fuck? Were they seriously out trying to snatch other people’s rightful zanpakutō?

It seemed that once he was dressed, Renji would be paying a visit to his old regiment.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to Josey (cestus) for typo-ing as usual. If you haven't checked out the latest installment of her ByaRenIchi epic, I highly recommend it: [ Without a Net](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1938519)


End file.
